In a surprise upset, the 6’5″ Sebastian Fundora (21-1-1, 13 KOs) defeated WBO junior middleweight champion Tim Tszyu (24-1, 17 KOs) by a 12 round unanimous decision to capture his title and the vacant WBC 154-lb belt on Saturday night at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
Fundora took advantage of a bad cut on Tszyu’s scalp to outwork him with nonstop punches against the blinded champion, who had problems seeing through the blood. The scores were 116-112 Tszyu, 116-112, and 116-112 for Fundora.
Undercard results below:
Isaac ‘Pitbull’ Cruz (26-2-1, 18 KOs) ended the brief reign by WBA light welterweight champion Rolando ‘Rolly’ Romero (15-2, 13 KOs) totally dominating him en route to stopping him in the eighth round by a technical knockout.
Cruz battered Rolly at will with shots in the eighth round, forcing the referee to step in and halt the contest. Rolly was hurt in the seventh and barely made it out of the round without getting stopped. In the fifth, the referee penalized Rolly a point for holding excessively.
WBA middleweight champion Erislandy Lara (30-3-3, 17 KOs) looked impressive coming off a two-year layoff to destroy challenger, #1 WBA contender Michael Zerafa (31-5, 19 KOs) by a second round knockout.
The 40-year-old southpaw Lara landed a scorching left hand out of nowhere to drop the 30-year-old Zerafa to the canvas. Zerafa staggered to his feet but was too hurt to continue. The time of the stoppage was at 2:59 of round two.
WBC flyweight champion Julio Cesar Martinez (21-3, 15 KOs) got off to a good early start to build up a lead and hang on to win a 12-round majority decision against challenger Angelino Cordova (18-1-1, 12 KOs).
The scores were 114-112, 114-112 and 113-113. Martinez dropped Cordova twice in round three with hard lefts and had hurt in round four. In the second half of the fight, Cordova rallied but failed to do enough to make up for all the early rounds he lost.
In preliminary action, Serhii Bohachuk (24-1, 23 KOs) was extended the distance in defeating Brian Mendoza (22-4, 16 KOs) by a twelve-round unanimous decision to capture the interim WBC junior middleweight title.
The scores were 118-110, 117-111, and 117-111. Mendoza landed a lot of hard shots, but he wasn’t busy enough, which enabled the busier Bohachuk to outwork him. Mendoza’s right side of his face was swollen up. It could be he suffered a jaw injury. The defeat for the 30-year-old Mendoza was his second in a row, as in his previous fight he lost to Tim Tszyu.
